Information systems often allow users to transfer system data to local devices for off-line work. Some systems permit a user to indicate a database that the user desires to have available on a local workstation, or client. For example, the user may copy the database documents from the system to a laptop or similar client. The user can then make changes at the client to one or more documents in the local copy of the database. Edited documents are later copied from the client back to the information system database.
In some instances, it is not possible to maintain a complete local copy of the database. For example, a server database can contain a large number of documents and the client may not have sufficient data storage capacity to accommodate all the documents. In other instances, the time required to copy the documents into the client database can be prohibitively long, such as when the client is connected to the server over a low data rate link. A user may be able to designate a subset of the documents in the server database for synchronization. However, the process of indicating the desired documents for synchronization can be tedious and may require complicated decisions.
What is needed is a method for managing the synchronization of database documents with client devices that improves automatic synchronizations and does not require complex interactions with the user. The present invention satisfies this need and provides additional advantages.